"The president is absolutely a Republican, as am I by the way", Mnuchin said Tuesday at a conference sponsored by CNBC and Institutional Investor Magazine.

"I'm hopeful in these states that taxes don't go up", Mnuchin said.

"The president has made it very clear that for hedge funds, they will not have the benefit of carried interest", Mnuchin told a roomful of hedge fund executives meeting at a hotel in Manhattan.

Mnuchin said the administration is sticking by another Trump priority: eliminating the favorable tax treatment for hedge fund managers. The president has been pushing for changes to the tax code to cut corporate and individual rates and simplify the system.

The White House and members of Congress are "pretty close to finalizing" a bill and have settled numerous disagreements that divided their effort early in the process, Short said. Reconciliation can be used if tax reform legislation can't get the required 60 Senate votes, he said. "Passing tax reform, which hasn't been done in 31 years, that's a win".

Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn are scheduled to meet with congressional leaders later Tuesday to discuss the Republican tax cut plan. As Mnuchin worked to sell an 18-month debt-ceiling increase to Republicans and Democrats during a meeting in the Oval Office last week, Trump abruptly chose to go for a three-month increase in line with what Democrats wanted.

"We're going to get this done by the end of the year", Mnuchin said, adding that the Trump administration was "super focused" on the goal after its three-month extension of the debt limit and government funding was approved last Wednesday.